Shadow looked at her in total silence while he found his own fingers wrapping around hers as he softly pulled her hand away from his coat.

"Do you trust me, Princess?" He asked her as he moved a little closer to her. He let out a very small amount of his energy that immediately surrounded the two of them, helping Emily to calm down without her knowing about it.

The girl was silent for a few seconds as she looked into his amber eyes, trying to find the answer to the question that had suddenly taken over her mind.

She found herself slowly nodding her head in reply to his question. She did trust him....more than she should. And the question was - why? Why did she trust him, a stranger, so much?

"Then, believe me, I won't let anything happen to you. Even though I won't be here with you physically but that can't stop me from protecting you. Trust me, Princess. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise."

Shadow's words were filled with a promise that held far too much weight and power than the usual promises that people used to make with each other.

Emily nodded her head as she closed her eyes for a few seconds to take in a deep breath. When she opened her eyes after a few moments, her gaze landed on the ring that she was wearing on the index finger of her right hand. It was the same ring that Shadow gifted her the previous night.

Her body relaxed a little and so did her mind. She looked at him as she spoke, "I trust you too much for my own good."

Her voice came out relaxed even though her body was still looking a little tense.

A small twitch appeared on Shadow's lips as he heard her words. He was not going to say it, but the words just flew out of his mouth on their own accord, leaving both him and Emily surprised.

"And I care too much about you for my own good."

The two of them looked at each other in pure silence as Emily tried to read his emotions, and failing miserably.

Before she could found her voice to speak, Shadow suddenly pulled away from her. He stepped back a few steps to put some distance between the two of them.

His expression changed as a small smile appeared on his lips as he spoke loudly, "Go now. Let's not waste any more time. We should hurry and finish our work."

"But..."

Before Emily could speak any further, she felt the glass door behind her opening and someone stepped out from the supposed-to-be empty building.

She turned to look at the person and found herself staring at none other than the Young CEO of Sullivan Empire.

"Mr. Sullivan...?"

Emily was surprised to see him and her questioning look perfectly portrayed her shock.

"Don't freeze yourself out here," Kaiden said with a smile on his lips as he hurriedly approached her and took one of her hands in his own before he turned to re-enter the building.

Emily was so surprised that it took her a few moments to realize exactly what was happening and by that time, she was already inside the building.

She hurriedly turned her face to look at Shadow but to her surprise, she found no one standing there.

"He has left."

Kaiden told her as he kept walking towards the elevator, still holding her hand.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked as she fastened her steps to keep up with him.

"Rylan and Shane wanted to send Christmas presents for you, so I called your brother for permission. That's when I got to know that you are heading here for some reason and I decided to hand over the gifts to you. That's why I am here."

Kaiden skillfully portrayed the lie that he had created to support his plan. Even he was convinced with his lie, less alone Emily.

They entered the elevator and headed straight to the seventh floor.

"Then where are Rylan and Shane?" Emily asked as she very slowly pulled her hand out of his hold.

"Well....since it's Christmas, they could not leave the mansion due to all the guests," Kaiden answered as he kept his attention fixed ahead on the closed doors of the elevator.

This time Emily raised her eyebrows high in a questioning look as she turned to face the silver-haired man.

Kaiden felt her gaze on him and turned to look at her in return. Her questioning eyes made a small twitch appeared on his lips.

He put on his most serious and calm expression as he asked, "Anything wrong, Miss Anderson?"

Emily found herself immediately shaking her head as she pulled her eyes away from his serious face.

Even though she felt for a moment that he was lying but she had no plans of confronting him just because of a stupid feeling that could easily turn out wrong.

They reached the seventh floor and the elevator door opened in the quiet hallway. Emily followed behind Kaiden towards the private offices that were located at the end of the left-wing.

They came in front of a door and Kaiden open it to let both of them inside. It was a huge office room, decorated simply but exquisitely.

"Where's the parcel?" Emily asked as she looked around the room.

"Look over there," Kaiden said as he pointed towards the huge wooden desk that was placed at the very back of the room in front of a huge glass window.

Potted plants were sitting around the room and there was a faint fragrance of rosemary in the office.

Emily approached the table and started looking around. It took her some time before she finally spotted the box which was resting under the table.

It was quite big and heavy, but she succeeded in safely placing it on top of the table. She found no name, address, or any other information written on it.

Just when she was busy assessing the parcel, she felt his presence behind him. A warm breath grazed the skin beneath her ear which made tingles erupt all over her body.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart."